A Blizzard in Ravenloft

Azeroth and Sanctuary are full of war, death, and demons. Surely, the Demiplane of Terror can't be worse?

Leona and Lynnara: Night 2

Some time later, Leona and Lynnara crossed a tree line, and entered a much more temperate climate. They came upon a small village that Lynnara vaguely remembered passing through before. After dealing with some intense suspicion, a small child directs them to an old woman outside of town. Lynnara rolled her eyes upon seeing the tent the old women lived in, remembering stories of crazy old gypsy women. Of course, Lynnara had never heard any stories of the Vistani.

The two young women entered the tent. The old women proceeded to read their fortunes.

Lynnara was found to be at a nexus, a choice between an earthly existence or a divine destiny.

Leona received a similar reading, but with a more sinister twist: Leona’s choice is between life or death.

The reading tiring her out, the old Vistani seer laid down on her mat and noisily began to sleep. Disgusted with the waste of time, Lynnara walked out of the tent. Leona stayed a moment, mesmerized by the crystal ball. She stroked the top of it, and it promptly disappeared. Frightened, Leona bolted out of the tent, running fast, making Lynnara annoyed at having to chase after her.

After they both calmed down a little, Leona suggested talking to the lord of the castle that loomed over the village. It was decided that news of the Lich King’s power would be the excuse to get in, and then they could get some real answers. This plan went swimmingly along until they got to the castle gate itself, and an argument with the guard lead to violence. They were quickly captured and incarcerated in the dungeon.

A night went by, and a young guard who lived in the village came down to the dungeon, his face coated in sweat. He babbled something about the village being in danger, and begged the two women to save his family. They agreed, and he unlocked the door and lead them out. They walked back down to the village, and entered a nightmare.

The village was infested with zombies. Shrugging, they prepared for easy battles. It was supposed to be a cake walk. Lynnara approached the first zombie, and swung, and that is when the plan smacked into a brick wall.

These zombies were much more powerful than the ones they faced on the beach. They hit harder, took more damage, and seemed more intelligent. It no longer was a battle to win, it was an ordeal to survive.

Running into a building to hide from more undead, they encountered what looked like a family of zombies, one of them they definitely recognized as the small child that told them of the Vistani woman.

The family attacked, and the two women were overwhelmed. Lynnara went down first. Her wounds stopped bleeding through techniques she had learned from the Order, though she still remained unconscious. The zombies moved to cut Leona off from Lynnara, again showing remarkable intelligence. Leona was left to quickly fall below the blows of the zombies.

This wasn’t the end, though. Leona soon awoke, completely healed and with all of her spells intact. The house was destroyed, and there was no sign of the zombies. Leona ignored this, and ran over to heal Lynnara, who still lay unconscious. They left the ruins, trying to explore the village now that the roads seemed clear of the undead. They found an outhouse, and disturbed a crazy man wielding feces and hiding from zombies. Shutting the door after he accuses them of zombies and threatening them with the feces, they walked away.

While rooting through her backpack looking for mana, Leona found the Vistani woman’s crystal ball. After some experimenting, they found they could look into the past of wherever they happened to be standing. Using this, they could see when zombies had entered a house, and so could finally tell which ones were sage.

They explored an empty house, and found some journals in a strange language, as well as what seemed to be a holy symbol. They escaped out of the house when they saw a zombie through the window.

Finding another empty house, with no sign of zombies around, they entered and barricaded it. They needed rest, badly. The battles with the zombies had taken serious toll, Leona’s miraculous healing notwithstanding. Leona laid down to rest, Lynnara offering to stand first watch. It was not long after that when there was a knock at the door. A soft yet firm voice called through the door, asking to speak to a specific woman. When Lynnara responded she wasn’t there, a creepy conversation began. Eventually the tired adventurers called it off and demanded he leave. It was then that the entire front of the house burst inward.

Standing before them was the master of the castle, a coldly handsome portait of elegance and nobility. He warned them that they should be the ones leaving, and to bother him or his people no more. When Leona asked if he could point them in a safe direction, the master smiled coldly, amused by some inner joke. He replied he couldn’t, and walked off into the darkness.

Leona and Lynnara are now alone in the wrecked house that was to be their sanctuary, and the sounds of shuffling footsteps and inhuman groans are steadily getting louder.

The Beachhead

Leona’s boat landed on the beach, avoiding the the ballista bolts that were flying into the sea. Her squad charged out of the boat, eyes firmly fixed on the zombies on the beach, determined to secure this area, to launch further attacks deeper into Northrend. Today would be the day the Lich King would learn fear.

“For the Horde!!” Leona bellowed with her compatriots, the call echoed by their unlikely allies from among the Alliance. Their blood was hot with rage and battle. It quickly cooled when they realised what they were up against.

For each zombie that fell, two more rose up from the ground. There was a necromancer in the area, obviously. The necromancer’s location quickly identified as at the other end of the canyon that opened up onto the beach. Knowing they were walking into a meat grinder, Leona and her forces gritted their teeth and tried to push through anyway.

The battle began to turn against the joint forces. Leona’s compatriots fell quickly, from zombies and from ballista bolts. Her meager healing spells were no match for a large ballista bolt through the chest. She was alone on the beach, but ready to fight to the death.

A black clad women came onto the beach from the east, slaying any zombies that got in her way. She was a fierce warrior, and immediately Leona felt hope. Even after the retreat had been called, Both Leona and her new partner fought their way through the zombie menace to face the necromancer responsible.

The necromancer brandished a bloody coloured orb and a black coloured hammer. Leona pulled her longbow and shot through the orb, getting covered in the strange liquid from inside. In shock the necromancer dropped the hammer, which the other female warrior picked up. Her arm shot out and smashed the wizard repeatedly until he was a bloody pulp on the floor. The other women dropped the hammer, her eyes glazed, seeming in shock herself.

Leona finally had a moment to talk to her new friend while she tended both their wounds. The other women introduced herself as Lynnara, an assassin from the Order of Mage Slayers. Leona hadn’t heard of them, and asked whether the Order worked with the Horde or the Alliance. It was Lynnara’s turn to be confused, never having heard of either faction, or of the three great wars that Leona went on to describe. It became clear that there was more going on here than what it seemed.

Lynnara had appeared on the beach tracking the necromancer, who had been named Drakoran and had murdered Lynnara’s sister. The Darksteel Hammer and the Blood Moon had been artifacts Drakoran had stolen from the order and Lynnara had been sent to retrieve. Lynnara told all this to Leona, who sat in stunned silence.

As their conversation went on, a storm began building. It occured to the two of them on the ice cold beach that staying there was not an option. They shared what cold weather gear they could scrap together and left the beach, back towards the lands Lynnara had journeyed from.